A toothbrush
Not only owning it, but using it. Pls.
Using it but not owning it sounds kinda gross in the context of toothbrushes tbh.
You mean you don’t rent your toothbrushes?!
Weirdly enough I’ve met a few other people who are weird enough to share their toothbrush with me
But what if the owner doesn’t know it?
If you are going to splurge, an electric toothbrush brush just feels better - although manual are just as effective when used properly.
They absolutely 100% are never as effective in any situation.
One I didn’t see mentioned yet: a rice cooker.
Put in rice, add water, push start button, and you get perfect rice every time. I’m usually against single-purpose kitchen tools but a rice cooker is soo worth it.
Really only if you eat a lot of rice. For once a year or so, a pot on the stove works just fine. The actual benefit I’ve see for ricecookers is how well they can hold the rice for hours ready to go, but that’s more of a commercial benefit I think.
Living in Japan, this almost didn’t register to me. I have literally never met anybody that didn’t have one. When you move out, you use your family’s old one until you can buy a newer one.
Everyone should have one, absolutely.
Rice goes in my instapot ( the crocpot version technicaly) on low pressure and irs every bit as good as my old rice cooker, once I nailed the timing and water amount. Bonus: it’s great at a BUNCH of other types of cooking also
Between that thing and my air fryer, I rarely use the oven anymore. Even more so for the microwave.
I know this will be a popular response, but I don’t get it.
I just use a pot and the rice is always perfect? Not hard at all? Am I just good?
We sold our rice cooker on eBay after finding out the microwave rice cooker addon for 10€ is just as good, if not faster.
So much this. I’m usually responsible for cooking for the week, and prepping rice was so much of a hassle in the middle of cooking everything else that most of the time I didn’t even bother and went for pasta instead— way easier to cook, but easily 3x the calories.
After I got a rice cooker, I just pop like 4 cups in that mfer and we got enough rice to last through like 2 days worth of dinner + bentos for lunch the day after.
Get a rice cooker y’all.
It’s great for quinoa, farro and couscous too. Love our tiger rice cooker, it’s a work horse!
ok this might sound heretical but a “hack” i learned from cooking youtube is to just boil rice like pasta then drain. I do this for about ~12 mins with white rice and it comes out perfect every time with no risk of messing up. Downside is you need to drain it.
unsure the validity of this claim? but apparently there can be a non-insignificant amount of arsenic in american grown rice, and boiling can help leech it out into the water.
Love mine.
When I make chicken or beef stock I put it in I’ve cube trays. On some mornings I add the rice, a stock ice cube, and maybe some miso. I let it ride while I get ready and then crack an egg on the cooked rice and add some avocado, tamari and rice seasoning (nori and sesame)
Best breakfast and super easy
My husband got us a Zojirushi rice cooker for my birthday one year, and I love it so much! We had an old $15 Oster one previously, which was also pretty nice to have, but oh boy. I’m spoiled by Zojirushi now. We could make a cake in it! I haven’t yet… But I could! Lol.
An instant pot can do that and a whole lot more. I’m not sure if that falls under $100 but I would bet if you got an off-brand version it would.
For anyone who doesn’t want a rice cooker but can’t find a good basic white rice recipe: Put rice and water in a pot (1 cup rice to 1.5 cup water. People will tell you 2 cups water, punch them, or ignore them, your choice.) Turn it on high until it boils, stirring lightly occasionally to stop it from sticking. As soon as it starts boiling (not simmering) cover it with a lid and turn on low. Keep covered until it’s done (just taste it to test if it’s done.)
P.S. You can add whatever seasonings you want if you find something good online or something. It’s not important to actually cooking the rice.
If you have a car get a dashcam. It’s more valuable than any insurance because it will definitively prove what happened when something goes wrong. Bonus: you can post videos of bad drivers doing stupid things on the internet for imaginary points.
If only there was actually a good car dashcam, but every time I go down that rabbit hole I give up frustrated. The quality (build, mounting, video, whatever) is shit in pretty much all of them, and the “passable” ones look like a web cam from 2005 still.
There’s a reason for that, Linus Tech Tips did a great video on it. You’re better off buying an old go pro and using that.
there are also android apps to do it with your phone but then you need a fairly safe mounting point for imyoir phone high up
I’ve bought the N2 Pro from Vantrue a couple of years ago and I’ve been super happy with it. The quality is pretty good and it has actually capable night vision and parking surveillance. I’ve also bought one for my brother in law (who got into an accident just a month after) and one for my grandma. Not to sound like an ad, but these are definitely worth checking out even if it’s an older model.
Look for a BlackVue or Thinkware.
I’d say before you even get a dashcam get an AC jump-starter. Those are less than $100
Definitely get one for your teenage driver. It keeps them honest and safe. And they will pay for themselves many times over if you get in an accident that wasn’t your fault. It’s like having your very own personal unimpeachable witness riding with you.
I agree and I have a dashcam. Best purchase ever, even though I hope to never need to use it.
I got my dash cam after someone tried to blame me for t-boning myself…
A pair of high fidelity earplugs (aka concert earplugs or filtering earplugs). You can get a good non-custom pair for $15–$40, and that’ll work well for the average person for a long time.
They’re excellent for live music, airplanes, and anytime you want the world to be quieter but still need to be able to understand speech. And for music specifically, they can bring the volume level down just enough to be safe without muffling the sound like traditional foam earplugs do. Protect your hearing, kids!
I got some of these and they are excellent
Comfy enough to use for sleeping?
You can buy earplugs made specifically for this purpose that stick out less so you can lie down
I’m sure you could with these, but I would advise against it because smoke alarms.
Just went to my first concert with a pair of these and I highly recommend. Not having a headache and ringing ears the next day was really nice.
I know it’s way more expensive, but the last gig I went to, I used my AirPods Pro in transparency mode, and it reduced the sound down from an insane ~110db to peaks of 90! Definitely worth protecting your ears.
deleted by creator
It gives a live read-out of the data in the ‘noise’ app on the Apple Watch. Not sure if that functionality exists without the watch, though!
Edit: not the most scientific measurement, so apologies if my original comment was misleading
deleted by creator
Yeah, I can’t stand losing the high frequencies and overall feel of the music with “musician’s” earplugs. How anyone other than a drummer plays with them and is satisfied is beyond me. I have some Etymotics just sitting here.
I didn’t even know this existed. I really suffer in places with too much background noise.
For anyone reading this, I definitely recommend Earasers. I have spent the better part of my life around really loud music things, especially because of my job. These things work wonders and are incredibly comfortable and low profile
I have done this same thing. My hearing is a bit hypersensitive and these kinds of headphones have helped me in many different, loud situations!
Went to my first concert recently—I loved it, but immediately knew I should have bought a pair of these.
Even regular earplugs at a loud concert work amazingly well for me. I can still hear conversation (people yelling over the music) but the deafening volume of the concert is brought down to acceptable levels.
I don’t understand why concerts are so loud. They’re just…so, so fucking loud…
I’ve been using my AirPods Pro 2 at races. They seem to work exceptionally well with noise cancellation on.
A bidet. You can install it yourself in 20 minutes and enjoy a lifetime of cleaner buttholes and save on tp.
A bike. Poor people in underdeveloped countries can use it to get access to education and markets, while people from developed countries can ise it to keep healthy and reduce their environmental footprint
I was going to say that, but out of the 6 bikes in the garage none of them are under $100 even second hand.
In fact I would advise against getting a cheap shitty bike that isn’t going to last. Spend the extra money, get something good. It’s better for the environment and your wallet in the long run.
I’ve driven “good” bikes all my life. Aluminium frame, disc brakes, fancy suspension, 3x9 gears. That sort of thing.
Wanna know what my best biking experience was? Riding a steel frame, 3-speed dutch-style rental omafiets with no suspension and regular-ass brakes on a vacation. That thing was hella comfortable, sturdy as a brick and convenient.
If I lived in a not fully car-brained city where you can safely bike and was tight on money, I’d absolutely buy an old cheap used regular-ass steel frame bike with no frills and use the hell out of it until it’s irreparably broken. You can leave that thing standing in the rain, locked with just a frame lock (or perhaps even no lock at all) all without worrying that it might get damaged or stolen because there isn’t much to damage or steal in the first place.
I also don’t see how buying a “good” bike in any way helps the environment when the alternative is re-using something that’s already been built and successfully used before.
I love my 2000€ Brompton that I daily-drive but I’d be nearly as happy with a 100€ bike like I described above. You don’t get more bike when you go above that price point, you only get a more fancy bike.
A good “omafiets” costs a lot more than $100 though, at least here in the netherlands.
Oh I’m sure the one I rode cost a lot more than that, I just took that as an example for a super basic bicycle. Point being that this super basic one was better in many ways than the fancy one at home.
I was also not talking about getting a “good” omafiets either; that was, like, the whole point.
You don’t need an expensive bike for commuting, but for the sake of your health DO NOT DO any sports on cheap bikes! Repairing your skull is not fun. Different bikes for different rides!
I’m really jealous of the Brommie’s folding mechanism.
I currently use a full size Dutch-style bike, but been keeping my eyes out for a secondhand folder for easy travelling, once I can swallow the price 🥲
Steel vs. aluminum might very well depend on how big you are, and if you’re a guy or gal.
I’m small and the weight difference between aluminum and steel is significant enough that I’ll never go back to steel if I can help it. Basically, with aluminum I can carry groceries and such easier b/c the bike itself is lighter.
Large folks with lots of muscle might not see this difference, however.
Yeah I was going to say this too. I got a cheap Walmart bike and it was still $300.
Here in Germany you can get a second hand bike for free. In the UK I used to be able to get one for about 50£…My current one is quite fancy, and I got it for 180€, so I don’t think it’s impossible to find it cheap and good.
The usual warning is not to buy a new one in the supermarket for those prices, as what you get might be worse than not having a bike
That’s great! I wish it were like that here in the U.S. Bike culture is trampled by car culture here.
deleted by creator
But I walk everywhere … not sure getting a bike would reduce my footprint.
Can’t leave footprints if your feet aren’t touching the ground.
It would increase your travel distance though. Mechanical advantage for the win.
I live on the 2km² old town island, everything outside that area is “here be dragons” for us ;)
I have a bike in a city and it’s faster than the cars. The cars are always stuck in traffic as I fly by. Bikes are the best.
In some cities it’s faster to walk than to drive, lol.
If you live in America, there are certainly a lot of things to consider on this point; mainly whether cycling in your area is even safe—obviously the ideal solution would be to move to an area with safer cycling, but that’s not an option for everyone—and I’d much rather someone not cycle than die because their area has horrible roads for cycling and they didn’t think about that. Check the safety of your area, and consider moving to a safer area for cycling if necessary (Or if you’re in it for the long haul, consider pitching in the community and trying to lead it towards a safer cycling future)
A first aid kit
And a disaster kit, tailored to the most common disasters in your region. If you have a first aid kit you already have a large portion of what it needs!
Very important that whatever first aid kit you get has a tourniquet, or that you buy one separately.
They are easily the most important life saving device in any first aid kit. 99% of the time you won’t need it for normal cuts but when you are dealing an injury that needs one you WILL regret not having one.
deleted by creator
These are great, especially if you have kids, but you do end up slamming toilet seats everywhere else.
Yep I have that problem now. All the toilet seats in my house are soft close and I slam public toilet seats whenever I’m out of the house now without thinking
Isn’t slamming elsewhere a reason not to get one?
deleted by creator
I can relate to this so much. When I bought my last house it didn’t have soft close seats and I was so used to it that I slammed it every time.
Maybe specific, but if you do any DIY housework, get an endocscope. Baiscally, a 10 foot long flexible wire with a camera and light at the end. Uses your phone as a screen. Can be had for <$50. So many of my house projects would have been impossible without it. Also good for finding stuff under the couch.
A fire extinguisher
And not that one that’s been sitting there for many years. They need to be replaced and you need to know how to use them.
A fire extinguisher can be found for less than 100 USD and is a must-have. A smoke detector is also a bare minimum in my opinion.
The Haynes manual for your car. Even if you’re not a mechanic they are so detailed they will walk you through fixing almost anything, they’re made for the laymen. I’m a diesel mechanic and even i own one for my cars.
When friends buy a new car i buy them a Haynes manual.
They don’t do them for ever single car in the world and the coverage isn’t as great on later model stuff but if you own s car 5 years or more old they’re great.
I spent a lot of time in the middle east, so I’m going to say: Deodorant, not more perfume. Please.
A water kettle. Doesn’t have to be any fancy one, but it really fucking rocks for anything you might think of : want hot water for tea? No problem. Need hot water to steep something? No problem.
Most mid-range ones are insanely power efficient too, often being alot better than just boiling water on a stovetop, or using a microwave. And, depending on insulation, heat can be stored for over 6! hours.
A bidet
